Edmonton: Explored

September 4, 2008

Fung, a blogger during last year’s celebration, wanted to bring the commissioned artists together for a show to give some context to their works, which were isolated across the city. The distance between sites made the works more like oddities than having a coherent connect the works with the city.

“I saw a lot of work, but I didn’t see a lot of new people. I just kept seeing the same people going to every little thing.”

Having spent most of her life in Edmonton has a love hate relationship with the city. Describing her city as “one of those cities everyone talks about leaving,” she says a lot needs to be done before Edmonton is truly a cultural capital.

She points to recent headlines declaring a crack down on graffiti as an example of how much the city needs to change.

“Although we have art communities, artistic people and there’s definitely a foundation here, we’re not connected enough to have a contemporary arts dialogue…culture means more than just producing work—it means standards of living, priorities and values.”

More than just bringing last year’s works inside, almost all the artists are taking the opportunity to rework their projects. Graffiti artist Clay Lowe and muralist Ian Mulder are even creating an indoor back alley. The new work shows just how far local visual arts can go to changing Edmonton.

“Edmonton was a cultural capital last year, and here’s this show which is a product of last year, but it’s not the end it’s really just the beginning of something else.”

Edmonton: Explored will be on display from Sat September 6th – Sat November 2nd at Edmonton’s Art Gallery of Alberta. You can check out Amy Fung’s blog here.